Francesco Millesi (born 24 July 1980) is a former Italian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

Club career

Millesi started his professional career at

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

, firstly with

Atletico Catania Unione Sportiva Dilettantistica Atletico Catania is an Italian association football club founded in 1967 and based in Catania, Sicily. Throughout its history, the club played extensively at Serie C1 and Serie C2 professional level, almost gaini ...

Serie C1 Lega Pro Prima Divisione was the third highest football (soccer), football league in Italy. It consisted of 33 teams, divided geographically into two divisions of 16 and 17 teams for group A and B respectively. Until 2008 it was known as Serie C1 ...

. He then played for

Ragusa Ragusa is the historical name of Dubrovnik. It may also refer to: Places Croatia * the Republic of Ragusa (or Republic of Dubrovnik), the maritime city-state of Ragusa * Cavtat (historically ' in Italian), a town in Dubrovnik-Neretva County, Cro ...

Serie D The Serie D () is the top level of semi-professional football in the country. The fourth tier of the Italian league system, the competition sits beneath the third professional league, Serie C. It is administered by the Lega Nazionale Dilettant ...

. In 2000, he moved to Igea Virtus at

Serie C2 Lega Pro Seconda Divisione was the fourth highest football league in Italy, the lowest with a professional status. Usually it consisted of 36 teams, but in the 2011–12 season, there were 41 teams divided geographically into two divisions of 2 ...

. At Igea Virtus, Millesi managed to score six goals in 70 matches over the two seasons. In 2003, he caught the eye of scouts from

Avellino Avellino () is a town and ''comune'', capital of the province of Avellino in the Campania region of southern Italy. It is situated in a plain surrounded by mountains east of Naples and is an important hub on the road from Salerno to Benevento. ...

, the

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named Serie Balkrishna Industries, BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 ...

newcomer. He remained with his first club outside Sicily for three seasons, scoring 16 goals in 88 matches He also played 6 playoffs and scored twice. In 2006, he transferred to

Calcio Catania Catania S.S.D., commonly known as Catania, is an Italian football club based in the city of Catania, Sicily, that plays in . Originally founded in 1908 as ''Associazione Sportiva pro Educazione Fisica'', the club boasts 17 appearances in the ...

, who were just promoted to

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

for the 2006–07 season. He played only 9 league matches in the first season. After played only once in the start of the second season, he was loaned to then Serie B club,

Spezia La Spezia (, or , ; in the local Spezzino dialect) is the capital city of the province of La Spezia and is located at the head of the Gulf of La Spezia in the southern part of the Liguria region of Italy. La Spezia is the second largest city ...

. After failed to sell the player in 2008–09 season. At the mid of 2009 summer transfer windows, Catania announced the contract terminations under mutual consent for both Millesi and Babu. On 31 August 2009, he signed a 1+1 contract with

Salernitana Unione Sportiva Salernitana 1919, commonly referred to as Salernitana, is an Italian football club based in Salerno, Campania. The original club was founded in 1919 and has been reconstituted three times in the course of its history, most recentl ...

of Serie B. On 1 February 2010, he moved to

Foggia Foggia (, , ; nap, label= Foggiano, Fògge ) is a city and former ''comune'' of Apulia, in Southern Italy, capital of the province of Foggia. In 2013, its population was 153,143. Foggia is the main city of a plain called Tavoliere, also known ...

. On 15 November, he returned to Avellino, where he soon became the club's

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

, and was one of the team's leading figures in the club's promotions from

Lega Pro Seconda Divisione Lega Pro Seconda Divisione was the fourth highest football league in Italy, the lowest with a professional status. Usually it consisted of 36 teams, but in the 2011–12 season, there were 41 teams divided geographically into two divisions of 2 ...

, also helping the side narrowly miss out on the

2013–14 Serie B The 2013–14 Serie B (known as the Serie B Eurobet for sponsorship reasons) was the 82nd season since its establishment in 1929. A total of 22 teams contested the league: 15 of which were returning from the 2012–13 season, 4 of which were p ...

promotion play-offs; he left Avellino at the end of the season. On 9 September 2014, he signed with

Arezzo Arezzo ( , , ) , also ; ett, 𐌀𐌓𐌉𐌕𐌉𐌌, Aritim. is a city and ''comune'' in Italy and the capital of the province of the same name located in Tuscany. Arezzo is about southeast of Florence at an elevation of above sea level. ...

. On 21 January 2015, he moved to Ischia Isolaverde. At the end of the season, he was once again a free agent, and he signed with

Acireale Acireale (; scn, Jaciriali, locally shortened to ''Jaci'' or ''Aci'') is a coastal city and ''comune'' in the north-east of the Metropolitan City of Catania, Sicily, southern Italy, at the foot of Mount Etna, on the coast facing the Ionian Sea. ...

on 30 October 2015, ahead of the 2015–16 Eccellenza Sicilia season. For the 2016–17 season, he was signed by Eccellenza Sicilia Group B side A.S.D. Calcio Biancavilla, at the request of the club's president Giuseppe Furnari.

Match-fixing

On 23 May 2016, Millesi, along with fellow midfielder Luca Pini and defender

Armando Izzo Armando Izzo (; born 2 March 1992) is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for club Monza. He previously played for the Italy national team. Club career Early career Izzo started playing football at the age of 13 ...

, was put under investigation by the anti-mafia police department in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

(DDA) after being accused of being directly involved with a

camorra The Camorra (; ) is an Italian Mafia-typeMafia and Mafia-type orga ...

clan based in

Secondigliano Secondigliano () is an old Italian municipality which became a modern suburb in the north of Naples. Geography Secondigliano lies between San Pietro a Patierno and Scampìa. History The name may derive from a contraction of "secondo" (second) an ...

in altering the results of the Serie B matches

Modena Modena (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language#Dialects, Modenese, Mòdna ; ett, Mutna; la, Mutina) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern I ...

–Avellino (1–0) from 17 March 2014, and Avellino–

Reggina Reggina 1914 S.r.l., commonly referred to as Reggina, is an Italian football club based in Reggio Calabria. Founded in 1914, they currently play in Serie B, and play their home matches at the 27,763 seater Stadio Oreste Granillo. They are nic ...

(3–0) from 25 May 2014. On 3 March 2017, the Italian football federation's prosecutor asked for all three players to be banned from football for six years, also requesting that

collateral estoppel Collateral estoppel (CE), known in modern terminology as issue preclusion, is a common law estoppel doctrine that prevents a person from relitigating an issue. One summary is that, "once a court has decided an issue of fact or law necessary to its ...

be applied, and demanded that they should each receive a €20,000 fine. On 12 April, both Millesi and Pini received five-year suspensions and €50,000 fines.

References

External links

Profile at La Gazzetta dello Sport

{{DEFAULTSORT:Millesi, Francesco 1980 births Living people Italian men's footballers US Avellino 1912 players Catania FC players US Salernitana 1919 players Spezia Calcio players Calcio Foggia 1920 players SSD Ischia Calcio players SS Arezzo players Serie A players Serie B players Serie C players Footballers from Catania Men's association football midfielders Footballers from Sicily